Ether (ETH) is advancing rapidly against Bitcoin as speculation about the performance of both assets parallels a major network upgrade.
Over the past week, ETH has outperformed the leading crypto by a wide margin, rising 4% to $1,876, compared to a 1.9% move for BTC. This is the first time since last year that Ether has traded at such a high level.
The ETH/BTC ratio has been trending higher recently, but remains in the middle of a multi-year consolidating range between around 0.053 BTC and 0.086 BTC dating back to 2021.
Ether investors, considered to be on the losing end of its initial trade, are now at 10-month lows, which could bode well for overall gains.
Digital assets are holding steady in the United States amid unprecedented banking turmoil and inflationary volatility that threatens to send the country into recession.
Mixed feelings around the new Ether network
While the industry experienced a short-lived turnaround in the risk asset market after the uncertainty surrounding Silicon Valley Bank, Signature and Silvergate last month, sentiment remains divided on Ether as it promotes its new network.
Open interest on perpetual contracts on the Bitfinex exchange hit a four-month high of $131 million.
Traders and investors increased their exposure to ETH futures contracts, which could be seen as a boost to bullish sentiment in Shanghai.
However, funding rates on the major futures exchanges are more or less stable, indicating that there are no significant funding challenges for long or short positions.
During the existence of the Ethereum participation contract, from the inception of the Beacon Chain until today, the price of Ether fluctuated between $600 and $4000.
Bitcoin is showing signs of weakness in the markets ahead of the long Easter weekend. The world’s largest cryptocurrency fell 2% by market value in the past 24 hours to $27,800, despite hitting as high as $28,800 earlier this week.
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